Video monitoring for security, traffic surveillance

The system is stated to be the first of its kind in South India.

The city will soon have state-of-the-art facility to monitor security and traffic movement in main junctions. The video monitoring facility set up by the City Police will be inaugurated by Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan soon.

The main feature of the facility is real-time monitoring of visuals recorded through 36 cameras placed in important junctions and strategic points in the city. The visuals from these cameras will be recorded and kept in digital format for nearly a year, said Manoj Abraham, City Police Commissioner. A video wall has been set up at the control room, where personnel will be monitoring the visuals. The system, believed to be the first of its kind used by police in South India, will have facilities to zoom any camera or to make public address at junctions during emergency situations, he said. In a circular issued in March, the Director General of Police had suggested the use of data stored in surveillance or speed detection cameras to trace vehicles involved in hit-and-run caes.

Given the high volume of traffic in the city, it will be difficult to pin down vehicles based on mere description of models. It is very difficult to trace vehicles involved in ‘hit-and-run' cases unless they are detected immediately after the incident, said a senior traffic police official.

However, the City Police could bring down instances of unsolved cases considerably, as only 17 cases went undetected last year. This was achieved mostly by employing traditional investigation techniques and timely communication using wireless, rather than using visuals from surveillance cameras, he said. The DGP's circular noted that many of these cases are not investigated properly. Cases, in which the victim dies and the accused driver or vehicle was not detected after a day of registering the crime, usually get classified as grave crimes and will be investigated by a Circle Inspector, other cases being investigated by a Sub-Inspector.

It has now been instructed that all ‘hit-and-run' cases should be investigated by Sub-Divisional Police Officers or Assistant Commissioners of Police, Traffic. Undetected ‘hit-and-run' cases should be reviewed regularly in the monthly crime review meetings convened by Superintendents of Police or City Police Commissioners, the circular said.